Gon Soba

A traditional Okinawan Soba shop on Route 58 in Yomitan

Michael Flemming Sep 03, 2013 - 2 min read

<p>Soba Shop Gon in Yomitan Village is the third location opened by the owner, Hyane-san</p>

<p>A shisha dog greets customers at the entrance to the restaurant</p>

<p>The interior of Gon is simply but attractively decorated</p>

<p>There are regular tables to sit at, tatami tables, and these tatami tables with room to dangle your feet down below</p>

<p>This is sanmainiku soba, named after the sliced pork that has three distinctive stripes in its meat</p>

<p>This is the mixed rib and pork soba</p>

<p>The front parking lot at Gon is usually full</p>

<p>Try the back parking lot if the main lot fronting Route 58 is full</p>

My wife had the pleasure of being the residential housing agent for the owner of the Soba Shop Gon restaurant chain before he owned any restaurants. Her answer to my question "what is Gon" was succinctly answered as being "the reward of doing everything possible to be successful." While I still think that Gon is an obscure Japanese boys name, the small but growing restaurant chain Gon stands for traditional Okinawan soba. Gon has established locations in the Okinawa City Koza and the Ginowan City Okinawa Convention Center areas.The Yomitan Village location that we visited for lunch opened in late August, 2013. The menu consists of six types of soba - mixed rib and pork, soki (soft bone), hon soki (hard bone), sliced pork (sanmainiku), kake (plain), and nankon (pork). Okinawan Soba is made primarily of wheat unlike mainland soba that is made primarily of buckwheat. I recommend ordering the mixed rib and pork soba as it essentially has all of the toppings Gon offers on it. Every soba at Gon is priced from 300 to 700 yen. Rice and onigiri is 50 to 120 yen. Soft drinks are 150 yen. Orion beer in bottles is 500 yen. Soba Shop Gon is located on the west side of Route 58 in Yomitan about 100 meters before the intersection with Route 6. Gon is open daily from 11:00 ~ 21:00.

Michael Flemming @michael.flemming

I'm a wanderer in Okinawa turning over every stone I can find. I write, photograph and blog about my favorite finds here in Japan's southernmost prefecture.